Yet More Actions From FCC on Station Fines

The frequent pace of announcements from the FCC lately regarding station fines continues.

- The commission has issued a $10,000 notice of apparent liability to Stephen Peters for problems with the required quarterly radio issues/programs lists in the local public inspection file. The proposed fine stems from an inspector’s visit last August. It’s for station WHAW(AM) in Lost Creek, W.Va.

- Separately the agency notified Della Jane Woofter of an NAL for $10,000 in a similar case involving WVRW(AM) in Glenville, W.Va.

- The commission also has finalized an earlier proposed fine of $10,000 against Media East and station WLGT(AM) in Washington, N.C. Its studio is in New Bern. In doing so the FCC rejected an appeal from the general manager saying he was present during the entire inspection and had provided all “public affairs listings” to the agent. The GM also disputed that the station had been unable to produce documents after 2006 and other details in the FCC’s notice; but the commission has upheld its $10,000 decision.

- And the FCC has notified Durrant Clarke of a $10,000 NAL for operating an unlicensed transmitter on 95.9 MHz from his business in Miami. The commission said when agents visited, Clarke told them he had let a friend place the transmitting equipment there about four weeks earlier and that he’d been turning the transmitter on and off at the direction of his acquaintance.

“Together, the facts show Mr. Clarke had control of the station and thus was involved in the general conduct or management of the station,” the FCC staff ruled. “The fact that someone else also may have been involved in the station’s operation does not make Mr. Clarke any less of a participant in the station’s operation.”